Audio Edition of the First Book on the Missouri Irish.
The Original History, with genealogical notes,
by Michael C. O’Laughlin, as read by Molly Nickle:

More Famine Irish; The Murphy Wagon,
Fr. Donnelly; Kansas City Irish settlements
I opened this section of the book,
“Joseph Murphy left town and climbed the fabled Indian Mound,
pondering his dilemma. He had arrived in St. Louis, parentless
at the age of 13, and built up a small wagon trade..”

Joseph Murphy
Todays excerpt covers the arrival of Joseph Murphy
as a young boy from County Louth. He became an
amazing success, his company building thousands
of wagons for the westward movement in America.

Abandoned
He was supposed to be greeted by family members
but they had left for parts unknown. So, he was
on his own when he arrived. I remember researching
the records looking for names of the Irish workers
on his wagons, but it seems there were more Germans
than Irish. The Irish worked well when they came
to work, but may have been a bit independent, so
the work force was primarily German according to
my sources.

illustrationsWe also find 30 illustrations or more, from my
collection on the Irish in Missouri, including
the famous and infamous, maps and extracts.
I think Molly reads the list of illustrations on
the audio, but of course, we could not show them.

Irish in Kansas City
I then moved on to the Irish in Kansas City, virgin
territory when I started to research this book.
The early settlers are included, and of course, the
Fr. Donnelly saga, along with the story of the
first parades in the 1800’s and who was in them!
The Shamrock Society and the Hibernians were
the first organizations of record in the 1800’s.

First K.C. newspaper
St. Louis had its first two newspapers published
by Irishmen, and now we find the first was
printed by Kennedy in Kansas City. The name
of the paper was The Kansas Public Ledger
in 1851 when it first came out, and it was
published near the River in what is Kansas
City Missouri today. I think it was on Water
Street, which no longer exists.

Politics
Irish politics are always present, and there
were plenty in Kansas City. People complained
of the Irish controlling the city back in the
1870’s, and I included some quotes from the
papers of the day on that…work crews also
held many Irish names as listed in the paper.

The above are just a few tidbits from the book,
and you can listen to it on my podcast or hear
all 7 hours of ‘Missouri Irish’ on our CD.

Next is part 6, which covers the St. Patricks
Day Parades.Then it is part 7, for the Irish Wilderness
settlement and Father Hogan.Finishing with part 8commentary:
‘My Irish American Heritage’
Sullivan, Donahue, Buckley, Kelliher Cork, Kerry,
Civil War, Iowa, Missouri… Special guest reading
by Patricia Donahue (O’Laughlin)

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